6 partner organizations focused on education, health and housing

#engagedallas was number 1 trending in dfw and number 8 in texas

inspired by over 20 business, civic, and nonprofit leaders

Mayor's Star Council partnered with 6 nonprofits focused on Education, Health and Housing to encourage Dallas professionals to get engaged in our city:

children's health education is freedom inclusive communities

metrocare services opportunity dallas strong schools strong dallas

Following lunch, attendees divided into small groups to learn about these organizations and their inspirational work, and learn how to get engaged by participating in upcoming opportunities provided by the partners.

Below please find a few examples of the discussions from our Action Sessions.

Metrocare Action Session:

Dallas County mental health service provider for the city. Attends to issues such as intellectual disabilities: down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, for example. Help integrate people with mental disabilities into the workforce, social life.

By helping the children early on we support them to become active members of society and able to integrate, function, and have a regular life. By doing this, this means that the parent(s) don’t have the burden to care for them in the long-term. Autism is becoming more common. Metrocare works with the most severe cases of children with intellectual disabilities.

20 years ago intellectual disabilities were associated with very early mortality. This has changed thanks to medical advancement. Now these children live 40-50 years.

105,000 people in Texas applied for help. 5,700 people in Dallas are waiting for resources, assistance. The waiting list is 14 years. Right now, we are serving cases from 2004.

Dallas county has a large group of people with significantly disabled conditions, and many of them can become employable. Their families care for them, which means this impedes them from becoming productive members of society as well. It affects the whole family.

Groups discussions: what can Dallas and state do to better address this?

Group one ideas: Show the correlation between the population that have received treatment and low instances of violent/criminal behaviors. Public private partnerships. Foundations, wealthy families. Help increase public and private partnerships. Get people the help at younger age so they can become functional members of society. This will help economically in the long run and save tax money to the city. The other side is they will need help for many years or the rest of their lives.

Group two ideas: Helping people with disabilities is a way to address a critical economic development.Create a social campaign to destigmatize people with disabilities.

Group three ideas: The bottom line is the need for more funding. The state needs to start by helping provide housing and relieving families from this financial burden. Strategy: working allegiances with people in the state legislature body. Find wealthy people with children/families with these issues and ask them to lobby on behalf of funding for people with intellectual disabilities. Identify people in government with medical background (doctors, nurses) and ask them to support, promote legislation that help with this issue.

Education is Freedom Action SessionTopic: College & Career Readiness

EIF Mission is to Transform lives through Education: High school students with a middle school component

What makes EIF: Program + People = Promise

College Advising, Strategic partnerships, 28 Campus based advisors, Near peer, college graduates, Proven results, Supporting all students, College and career culture.

Evidence of Impact from 2016-2017 school year

27,777 students serve; 3705 Seniors

98% college acceptance rate

$150 Million + Scholarships raised

Mayor’s Intern Fellow Program

2150 Applications Submitted

1150 Eligible scholars

392 Intern Fellows (paid internships)

240 Companies and Nonprofits

52 Schools

Break Out Groups: Competition + Who can impress an 8th GradersTeams were tasked to figure out different resources that tackle the issue of exposure for students in the 8th grade with low to no budget. Each group pitched their idea to the 8th graders. The 8th graders rated the idea on coolness factor rated from 1-5.

Opportunity Dallas Action Session

- There was much talk about the need to differentiate between the terms "economic development" and "gentrification." Those in the room understand that "economic development" increases the economic capacity of all people in the area.

- While gentrification was assumed to be a bad thing by most, discussion came up from some that the chance to get out of a struggling neighborhood and "sell out" could be a good thing for people who wanted to leave for their families.

- A question arose about where, if at all, truly mixed income neighborhoods have existed and succeeded that didn't require large scale government investment. Some push back to this question emphasized how any tax policies or breaks to developers is government investment.

- There was group consensus on the value of tax freezes that would allow people to move into a neighborhood with a certain taxable amount and only pay new rates on property when a home was bought or sold.

- Transportation's relationship to housing came up repeatedly.

- There was consistent feedback that people moving to the Dallas area are being told by real estate agents to not live in Dallas proper because of schools. Education and housing overlap here as well.

- The discussion was primarily focused on homeowner concerns and those of developers and government entities. Someone mentioned near the end that renters have stake in this too and are often forgotten in these discussions.